There are more than 1000 unique substances exhaled in breath and there is a lot of research into mapping the presence and/or ratio of these substances to indicate various disease states. For example, studies have shown that biomarkers in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be useful in aiding diagnosis and predicting exacerbations, defining specific phenotypes of disease and evaluating the effects of drugs. Other proteomic studies have shown methods which can act as an early detection of cancer based on analysis of exhaled breath condensate (EBC). EBC pH has also been shown to change from normal values in various respiratory diseases. EBC collection may also be useful for rapid detection of infectious processes in the lung, such as tuberculosis (TB), using polymerase chain reaction technology (PCR).
Devices for EBC collection are currently known, but are generally large, expensive to produce and complicated to use. There is thus a need for a cheap, non-invasive, simple, efficient and quick EBC collection apparatus.